Lesson: The Bubble Economy and the Lost Decade
Grade Level: Secondary,Post-SecondarySubject Area: English and Language Arts,Social Studies
This lesson uses well-know editorials, speeches, and poems to explore the Japanese reaction to the Bubble Economy and Lost Decade.
Lesson: Changing Times, Changing Styles: New Japanese Literary Styles of the Late 19th Century
Grade Level: SecondarySubject Area: English and Language Arts
Kunikida Doppo’s story, "Unforgettable People," provides an example of a style of Japanese literature that developed in the 1880s and 90s as a result of encounters with European literature and other changes in the Japanese lifestyle related to the Meiji Restoration. The author(s) of this lesson suggest ways in which a discussion of the impact of this type of cultural contact may be introduced into the classroom.
Lesson: Akutagawa Ryunosuke and the Taisho Modernists
Grade Level: SecondarySubject Area: English and Language Arts
The modernist literary movement is commonly characterized by experimental styles and themes. Literature produced in Japan during the Taisho Period shares many characteristics with this global movement, as students will discover by analyzing literature from this period such as Akutagawa Ryûnosuke’s short story "In a Grove," (1922) as well as Kurosawa's film Rashômon (1950), a later film based on Akutagawa’s works.
Lesson: Individual and Society: Natsume Sôseki and the Literature of the Early 20th Century
Grade Level: SecondarySubject Area: English and Language Arts
The place of the individual in society is a significant issue in understanding Meiji Period Japan. In reading and discussing the novel Sanshirô by Natsume Sôseki, students will consider the ways in which Japanese writers of the period reflected larger societal trends, and, more generally, how individuals react to societal change.
Lesson: National Identity and Literature from Okinawa
Grade Level: SecondarySubject Area: English and Language Arts
Through examples of Okinawan literature and its relationship to the larger genre of “Japanese literature,” the author(s) of this lesson addresses problems in the definition of ethnic and national identities.
Lesson: The “I” Novels in the Context of Early 20th-Century Japan
Grade Level: SecondarySubject Area: English and Language Arts
Focusing on developing students’ understanding of how a writer's background affects the way he or she writes about personal experience, this lesson utilizes the literary works of Shiga Naoya and Hayashi Fumiko to show how “I novels” provide insight into both the authors’ backgrounds as well as their reflections on problems of human existence and social life.
